Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Antonio Vaglica. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Antonio thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Most financial services firms are groups of salespeople disguised as “advisors.” Especially when working with small business owners, entrepreneurs need more strategy than products. Sure products have their place at time, but our business focuses on giving advice for the advice sake only. For example, instead of focusing on rate of return, we shift alot of the focus on how we can drive more dollars back to the businesses bottom line through initiatives like tax planning; this results in the client reinvesting in their BEST rate of return, which is themselves and their business.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Playing professional baseball was my plan A,B and C. When Covid put an obstacle in that dream, I chose to pivot into entrepreneurship and leverage my athletic background in this business world. I first started out selling life insurance for a company, which brought back my competitive spirit given how tough of an industry it is for a 22 year old to break into. I saw alot of early on success but knew it wasnt sustainable if I didnt invest in my personal development and a better network. My business partner and best friend Landon and I decided to start a podcast in October of 2019 which ultimately changed the trajectory of our lives. Shortly after the podcast launched, we realized noone wanted to listen to two 23 year olds talk about success when we had none of it. So we decided to switch to an interview based podcast and brought on successful business owners to hear about their stories. (This was also a way for us to get our own personal questions answered since we couldnt afford their mentorship at the time.) After about a year of interviewing multiple business owners a week, we developed the skillset to deepen relationships with our podcasts guests. This resulted in multiple joint venture opportunities. Shortly after, we quit our jobs and started a financial services agency together which was built on the backbone of the joint ventures we created through the podcast. We grew that to be quite successful but we knew something was missing. We got tired of the business model that forced us to have to sell a specific product to get compensated. We wanted to deliver advice to entrepreneurs for the advice sake only and help them grow to realize their visions. This resulted in us pivoting to a consulting model in which we own a portfolio of companies solely designed to help the stage 2 growth oriented service based business owner thrive.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Landon and I met at an all boys boarding school in Asheville North Carolina. We both got recruited to play sports there our junior year. He was from Deleware, I was from New York and we were the only two kids from up north. Naturally they called us the Yankees. Landon was the quarterback and convinced me to play football (I went there for baseball) and shortly after, I became the number 1 receiver on the team. I was the slowest person on the field, but the connection we had on and off the field resulted in us leading our team to the state playoffs every year. We kept in touch as we went on to play college sports and when college was over, we picked up where we left off, this time in entrepreneurship.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
Our entire business model is built for retention over acquisition. We invest ALOT of money in deepening relationships with our clients. Whether its randomly sending high end customized gifts to hosting an extravagant experience at PGA Tour events, we are always looking for more ways to remind our clients that they are top of mind for us. We have hundreds of active clients, but I still make it a point to speak with them once a week without fail. Whether thats a voice note or text to check in, or a call to see how their family is doing, our clients are family members most of all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antoniovaglica.com
- Instagram: AntonioVaglicaJr
- Facebook: Antonio Vaglica Jr
- Linkedin: Antonio Vaglica Jr